Claire Weisz and Mark Yoes

WXY architecture + urban design was founded in 1998 as Weisz + Yoes by Claire Weisz and Mark Yoes. In 2009, the New York-based studio renamed itself WXY to reflect the ethos of the firm and the addition of a third partner, Layng Pew. In this excerpt from their lecture, Claire Weisz and Mark Yoes present the Battery Bosque and Sea Glass Carousel; the Times Square Visitors Center; and the Official NYC Information Center, all in New York. The firm is known for the realization of innovative architecture by means of public and community-initiated commissions. Its work ranges from single buildings to public landscapes to urban design plans to urban furniture, including The Battery Bosque and Sea Glass Carousel in lower Manhattan; the Hudson River Park Activities Buildings; the Bronx Charter School for the Arts; NYPD Security Kiosks; the NYC Information Center; Fordham Plaza Conceptual Master Plan; and Nanhe River Landscape Bridge in Xinjin, China. Weisz + Yoes was selected by the League in 1998 to participate in its Young Architects Forum and was recognized in 2006 as a Design Innovator by Chrysler/House Beautiful. Claire Weisz edited the AD issue Extreme Sites: Greening the Brownfield.

Claire Weisz received her professional degree from the University of Toronto and her Master of Architecture from Yale University. She currently is on the faculty of New York University’s Wagner School of Public Policy and was on the founding board for The Design Trust for Public Space. Mark Yoes received his Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University and his Master of Architecture from Yale University School of Architecture. Layng Pew received his Bachelor of Art in Architecture and Master of Architecture from Yale.